Stand Alone At The Top
by Azu Dazu
Summary: A what-if AU inspired by Kaleb's video on Youtube where he speculated what would have happened if Diavolo got pierced by the arrow.


**Doppio** let out a shaky breath as he regained consciousness. Bruno's body was feeble and weak, barely managing to sustain his life force. He coughed, but no blood came out. Boss was right when he told him not to move an inch.

Mista had only shot him in the leg, the collarbone and the ribcage. In spite of his leader's orders, Mista had only incapacitated him. His resolve had been, for some reason, shaken. Maybe he spared him because he believed Bruno could still be saved. Didn't he know that the capo had already been dying out beforehand?

No, never mind all that. The Boss hadn't called. That means he must be in serious trouble. Through the connection they shared, Doppio could tell where he was and what he was doing. He gulped and cried out.

"BOSS!"

No, he would not let him down. Not now. Not when he probably needed him the most. Even with this broken body, he would do his Boss one last loyal service. For he was his adorable little Doppio.

* * *

**Diavolo **just couldn't believe it. Mere days ago, luck had supported him through every obsticle. Destiny had been on his side. He was fate's champion! But now...but now, two of Bruno's pathetic pets and his daughter, curse her existence, were about to defeat him!

Maybe he should retreat. That wasn't admitting defeat. It was just pragmaticism. He would run away now, leaving them confused, then when they least expected it, he would destroy eliminate them all and seize his throne once more. He was a king. He would remain as such. That was the absolute undeniable truth of this reality!

Then he heard his daughter's words. He saw the image of Giorno holding the arrow up, the sunlight shinning behind him and reflecting off him like a golden aura. Even Diavolo had to admit it was a glorious sight and that only sprouted newborn hatred for the boy - Giorno Giovonna. If it hadn't been for him, Bruno wouldn't have been such a thorn in his side. And now, he possessed the arrow.

'There's no escaping from this...no next time. I'll finish this, here and now!'

But just as he moved to charge at the Giovonna boy...he froze completely, his eyes wide and filled with disbelief.

'This...This vision...!'

Just as Giorno was about to pierce himself with the arrow, someone slammed into him from behind and kicked the arrow away, sending it flying towards Diavolo. Gasps came from everyone as they saw who it was.

"B-Bruno?!" Mista exclaimed, his expression confused and shocked.

"This isn't Bruno-!"

"Heh...Ha ha ha ha...AH HA HA HA HA HAA...You fools!" Diavolo cackled as he held the arrow, grinning truimphently at the trio. His grin widened when he noticed the recognition on his daughter's face.

"Mista, Giorno...this is the boss' other self!"

The Doppio-possessed Bruno panted and collapsed. He had used up all of his remaining strength to run to the Boss' location. It was a wonder his soul hadn't already left Bruno's body, but now it could no longer hold itself in. He felt his life slip away, but even so...he was happy. He had helped the Boss. He was still the Boss' best. He just...needed to hear it from the Boss himself.

"Boss...did I do good? Am I still...your best?"

"Yes, Doppio! You did a splendid job! Thank you, my adorable Doppio! I am so very glad I didn't run away! Were it not for your actions and my daughter's words, I would not have the arrow now!"

"Ari...gato...Bossu..."

Doppio died with a smile, knowing he had served his boss loyally till the bitter end. This was the absolute perfect way to die for the Doppio Vinegar, Diavolo's alter ego.

Diavolo was estatic. Giorno, Mista and Trish were horrified. Polnareff screamed something. It all happened so fast. But his King Crimson's predictions were faster. He saw their attacks - the trajectory of their movmements. King Crimson has already seen through it!

"King Crimson! Time shall be eliminated for everyone but myself!"

He moved fluidly through the broken reality of erased time, dodging Mista's bullets, letting Giorno hit nothing.

"I can estimate what these pieces of shit are going to do! And now, I shall reach the absolute truth of the king!"

He jammed the arrow into his chest. It released a powerful glow and time resumed as normal. When Giorno and Mista were no longer under the effects of King Crimson, they blinked, Diavolo nowhere to be seen. They searched frantically with their eyes, Stands ready to attack.

"Guys, up there! The Boss is up there!" Trish pointed at the sky.

Diavolo seemed to literally float in the air above them, with a unknown figure at his side. A Stand. But it wasn't King Crimson. It didn't quite look King Crimson. It's body was a several shades darker than that Stand. The shape of it's head was also vastly different, too. And other features had changed, too.

"This is..." Trish began, her mouth agape.

"King Crimson..." Mista said after her.

"Requiem..." Giorno finished it.

"We have the get arrow off of him, somehow!"

"I-It's no use, Mista..." Trish objected, tugging him back by the shirt, "The boss has already gone beyond the arrow's power. It has chosen him. The arrow will forever be..."

"_Mine._ How very correct you are, my daughter!" he turned towards her and the now unmoving body of Buccerati, eyeing them with some level of appriciation in his crazed green eyes, "If it weren't for you and Doppio, I wouldn't have gotten the arrow! I would have not reclaimed my spot at the top! And now, I will be more powerful than ever! Perhaps I was wrong about you...your existence was a blessing to me by fate! Just like the arrow!"

Trish cringed, hating her father more and more as he boasted from above. The worst part about it, was that what he said was the truth. A truth he had managed to reach.

"Come on then, you little brats, attack me! Or maybe you will run away! Either way, YOU ARE FINISHED! KING CRIMSON!"

The trio of 'brats' shifted, but it was too late. King Crimson's time erasue was instantaneous. Diavolo cackled at their pitiful attempts to flee. And while his victory had been beyond assured now...there was still the nagging feeling of curiousity that prevented him from immediately disposing of Mista, Giorno and his daughter. And that curiousity stemmed from the newly upgraded version of his Stand.

So far, the changes only appeared to be in appearance and the 'duration' of erased time. But more than that, he hadn't seen what kind of power the arrow had given him. He saw this as the perfect opportunity...to be sure that he was truly an absolute king now...

"King Crimson, show me the full extend of your power! I desire to see your capabilities, those greater heights that the arrow has pushed us to!"

King Crimson Requiem turned around and Diavolo noticed another change. The Stand's expression was a far cry from what it was. Where King Crimson always seemed angry or irritated, it's Requiem counterpart exuded calm and peaceful indifference towards everything around it. As if nothing was a threat to it and it posed no threat to anything.

As Stand and User locked eyes, the latter began to see flashes. At first, they were hazy and irritating to his senses, but he quickly got used to it and it was like watching a video recorder. He saw what had happened for the past days, ever since his confrontation with Risotto. He saw Doppio on the plane. Ciocolatta and Secco attacking Bruno and Giorno. Himself facing Polnareff at the stairs. The birth of Silver Chariot Requiem. The death of Narancia. The birth of his own Requiem.

'I...I can see the past now, too? But wait...'

The visions continued. He saw Giorno, Mista and Trish putting a distance, thinking of how to counter attack.

'Now it works just as normal...but wait...why isn't it...stopping?'

Diavolo's eyes widened and suddenly a ringing pierced his ears as he time frame after time frame continued to unfold before his eyes and then it suddenly split into billion different pieces and it all became one huge, incomprihensible blur of timelines.

'W-What is this-ugh!'

Diavolo clutched his head in pain, his mind unable to cope with what he was seeing. His heartbeat increased and he felt as though it was going to explode.

"This is Requiem..." a deep, booming voice said. Diavolo turned around and saw King Crimson Requiem looming over him, the same calm and indifferent expression on it's face. "You alone now stand at the top. You alone will have the power to peer into the absolute truth that others will not see."

"I...I...What-What do you mean? What _does _this all mean?! Ho-How are you able to talk to me?!" Diavolo asked these questions and while he desperately wanted an explaination, a subconscious part of him understood King Crimson Requiem to a limited extend. It understood the maddening blurs he just saw.

Then he was back at the present, where time was still erased and his enemies were making unconscous movements through it. Diavolo was still too shaken by what he had seen to immediately register it. Because suddenly remaining at the top didn't seem important, nor did getting rid of those who opposed him. He needed more answers and he would ask far more questions.

"Damnit, I still have to deal with those brats...And anyone else who might persue me."

"No...There is no need for that. You are the king who stands at the top. You won't have to dirty your hands anymore and your past will not drag you down. You will not be harmed by anyone. In particular, nobody will be able to reach the absolute truth that you have now reached."

"What?"

Diavolo recieved no answer. Instead, King Crimson Requiem illuminated the whole kaleidoscope of erased time with a tremendous ominous glow and everything went blindingly bright. After time had resumed back to normal, the crimson kings were nowhere to be seen. Not even Trish could feel their presence.

"It's as if he has vanished from our world." she said.

* * *

**Giorno** got the arrow. Golden Experience Requiem was born. But...what use did it have now. When he had asked about Diavolo, GER had simply replied by saying:

"The crimson king has already reached _his_ truth. There is nothing I can do about it. But...he is neither a threat, nor a friend. He's an outsider. A lone king. He will stand at the top and that's where he will remain. Away from others. Away from their fate."

Giorno quickly took over Passione, becoming the next Boss. Technically, he had achieved what his group was aiming for...protect Trish and others from the Boss' evil and overthrow him. GER made sure that was the truth. And yet...it didn't feel satisfying...It wasn't the truth he wanted...but it was the truth fate has given to him, so...he, Mist and Trish would have to bear with him.

"Maybe your deaths weren't in vain...but I wish I had avanged you."

Giorno said solemnly looking at the clouds above, imagining Bruno, Abbachio and Narancia staring at him from above. He wondered if they were disapponted, angry or just...relieved that the whole ordeal with the Boss was over. Because Giorno was all of those at the moment.

* * *

**Diavolo, **even a month and a half later, or so King Crimson Requiem had told him had passed in 'normal time', couldn't help but ask more and more questions about his Stand's ability and what he was shown everytime. Regretfully, his Requiem was as vague as some of the visions he saw. But at least he now understood a few things - his Epitath was now apperently absolute. It could play like an unlimited video recorder or something like very much like it...He could see the pasts, presents and the futures of not only this timeline, but the one after it and the ones that branch off of it like tree roots. His time erasure also had no limits now, as well.

That was all the knowledge he had managed to muster and still he didn't fully get it, only on a subconscious level. Then there was the fact that his time erasure seemed to have no limits now, since sometimes he could be using still be using without even realizing. And then...his interaction with outsiders.

He had felt the need to hide once more, but King Crimson Requiem had assured him that there was no need for that. Warily he had agreed. Surprisingly, after each encounter and interaction, nobody came after him. Nobody mentioned seeing him anywhere. Nobody could _identify _him before and after an encounter.

This was great, honestly...He no longer needed to fear the past. It seemed King Crimson Requiem also had some kind of memory altering ability, too. This was great...now he had all he wanted...He was at the top...nobody was a threat to him and nobody could question him, because nobody even _knew _of him. This was great...

"Yet, why can I not feel satisfied? Where is the bliss I felt when I pierced myself with the arrow?"

It was infuriating, yet he didn't feel like lashing out at anyone. His way of lifestyle for the past month and a half had been vastly different from before. Instead of living in paranoia, he walked the steets like a calm pedestrian. Nobody gave him weird looks. No Stand User could sense him. He stood at the top...alone and confused about what it all meant. He let out a sighed, rubbing his head.

"Perhaps, my limited mind still cannot comprehand the absolute truth of the crimson king..."

Perhaps, he thought as he looked at the sky, he needed to learn more about the peasants and their truths first, before he could understand the truth of the _king_. _His _truth. He needed to travel around the world to search for answers. His visions were vague, but they were obviously connected to events that are happening or will happen, in both this timeline or another one.

He noticed a big white boat, polished till it was glowing and he nodded to himself.

Like before, his interaction with the seller of the boat was quick, vague and harmless. Once he got on the boat and strode off to the horizon, King Crimson Requiem's mysterious ability had activated and it was like he didn't exist for the man.

As he looked into the sunset, he hummed. Diavolo remembered once, when Doppio was the one in control, how he had told his foster father of wanting to become a sailor. It was a stupid blabber of a naive boy. But now he saw the perks of being one. Especially when sailing alone. It was quiet. And he stood at the top. _Alone._

* * *

**Several Years Later**

**Pucci **didn't know the man before him. He knew nothing about him. _Absolutely nothing_. It was like looking at an otherwordly creature. Something he couldn't understand. DIO had given him a similar impression, but not this extend. This man was someone...way beyond everyone's understanding. That much the priest could tell. And it was terrifying that this was the only thing he could understadn about the man.

"Have you come to me for a prayer?"

"No."

"Then what for?"

A drop of sweat rolled down his face. He prepared White Snake, but he knew it would be pointless to attack the man.

"Normally I do not conversate with others, but...this is an exceptional occasion."

"Oh?"

"There is something I wish to discuss with you."

"Before that, can I learn who you are, sir?"

"I'm Diavolo. But who or what I am is irrelevant. For you, I won't exist after this conversation is over."

**THE END**

* * *

**Theme Song: watch?v=Hp4pvHv4ktw**

**Stats: **Like GER, stats no longer exist for KCR.

**Kaleb's video: watch?v=oLvsNarWwfo&t=884s**


End file.
